Sir William Beveridge, The British Government and Plans for Food Control in Time of War, c. 1916–1941

Abstract

This article presents an analysis of the ideas and work of Sir William Beveridge on developing a food policy for the British government in the build-up to the Second World War. Beveridge chaired a committee to enquire into the administrative arrangements for rationing set up by the Committee for Imperial Defence in 1936 and subsequent histories that cover government preparations for the wartime food defence policy assume that his report, which placed great emphasis on advance preparation, was implemented in full. This article will show that it was not. This article outlines the ideas that underpinned Beveridge's report and shows how these related to his experience in the ministry of food in the First World War. It also explains why Beveridge was not appointed to head the Food (Defence Plans) Department of the board of trade that was set up by the government in 1936. In so doing it comments on the government's rearmament policy and the nature of the civil service in order to discuss the counter-factual question of whether it would have made any difference to subsequent events if Beveridge had been appointed. The article concludes with an examination of the work of both the F(DP)D and the ministry of food in the early years of the war and shows how this bore very little relationship to Beveridge's ideas.

Keywords:

• Second World War
• William Beveridge
• British Government
• Food Policy
• Committee for Imperial Defence
• First World War
• Rationing

Notes

  [1] Quoted in, Tallents, Man and Boy, 230.

  [2] E. M. H. Lloyd, Memorandum on Food Policy, 1935, British Library of Political and Economic Science (hereafter BLPES), Lloyd 4/45.

  [3] Hammond, History of the Second World War, 9 and 48; and Hancock and Gowing, British War Economy, 51.

  [4] Wilt, Food for War, Agriculture and Rearmament, 230.

  [5] Rollings, ‘Whitehall and the Control of Prices and Profits’, 517–40 and 518.

  [6] Zweiniger-Bargielowska, Austerity in Britain, 16.

  [7] Wilt, Food for War, Agriculture and Rearmament, 64.

  [8] Committee of Imperial Defence, sub-committee on food supply in time of war, report, November 1936, BLPES, Beveridge Papers (hereafter: BLPES, Bev) viii/12. The description of Hankey is from, Middlemas, The Strategy of Appeasement, 67.

  [9] See, BLPES, Bev viii/11 (23) (24) (41).

 [10] Report of the sub-committee on rationing.

 [11] Report of the sub-committee on rationing

 [12] Report of the sub-committee on rationing.

 [13] Minutes of the third meeting of the sub committee on food policy in time of war, CID, 9 October 1936, National Archives (hereafter: NA) CAB 16/156, 1.

 [14] Clynes to Lloyd George, 16 October 1918, BLPES, Bev iv/26 (114).

 [15] Beveridge, British Food Control, 341.

 [16] E. M. H. Lloyd, Memorandum on Food Policy, 1935, BLPES, Lloyd 4/45.

 [17] Beveridge, British Food Control, 51.

 [18] Beveridge, Power and Influence, 390.

 [19] Beveridge, British Food Control, 337.

 [20] Beveridge, Power and Influence, 390.

 [21] Report of the sub-committee on rationing.

 [22] Beveridge, ‘Scale of Rationing Under a Comprehensive System’, 22 February 1917, BLPES, Bev iv/20, 114 and 115.

 [23] Beveridge, ‘Scale of Rationing Under a Comprehensive System’, 22 February 1917, BLPES, Bev iv/20, 113.

 [24] Beveridge, ‘Compulsory Rationing: Draft Memorandum’ December 1917, Section c, BLPES, Coll. Misc. 0092/9, 53–57.

 [25] Beveridge, ‘Compulsory Rationing: Draft Memorandum’ December 1917, Section c, BLPES, Coll. Misc. 0092/9, 58–60.

 [26] Beveridge, ‘Memorandum as to Work of Ministry of Food’, 28 December 1916, BLPES, Coll. Misc. 0092/12, 3.

 [27] Beveridge, ‘Organisation, Powers and Personnel of the Ministry’, June 1917, BLPES, Coll Misc 0092/12.

 [28] Beveridge, ‘Sources of Difficulty in Work of Ministry’, 5 June 1917, BLPES, Coll. Misc. 92, vol. 12.

 [29] Beveridge, ‘Sources of Difficulty’.

 [30] Beveridge, Compulsory Rationing, 68.

 [31] Report of the sub-committee on rationing.

 [32] ‘Food Supplies in Time of War’, The Times, 30 November 1936, NA, CAB 104/147.

 [33] Pimlott, The Second World War Diary, 410.

 [34] Pimlott, Hugh Dalton, 352; Peden, Keynes and his Critics, 283.

 [35] O'Halpin, Head of the Civil Service, 175, footnote 105.

 [36] Memorandum from Beveridge to Hankey, ‘notes on financial terms’, n.d., BLPES Bev viii/11 item 90, 5 and 6.

 [37] Memorandum from Beveridge to Hankey, 5 and 6.

 [38] Hankey to Inskip, 16 November 1936, NA, CAB 104/147.

 [39] O'Halpin, Head of the Civil Service, 204.

 [40] Hankey to Inskip.

 [41] Beloff, ‘The Whitehall Factor’, 210.

 [42] Greenaway, ‘Warren Fisher and the Transformation: The Role of the Higher Civil Service’, 125–42 and 133.

 [43] Theakston, Leadership in Whitehall, 54 and 58.

 [44] Beveridge, British Food Control, 334.

 [45] Beveridge, ‘Statement by Sir W. H. Beveridge’, BLPES, Coll. Misc. 92, vol. 12 (23).

 [46] Beloff, ‘The Whitehall Factor’, 210.

 [47] Fisher, quoted in Theakston, Leadership in Whitehall, 52–53.

 [48] Beveridge, quoted in Theakston, Leadership in Whitehall, 63.

 [49] Peden, British Rearmament and the Treasury, 64–5; British Economic and Social Policy , 288; Arms, Economics and British Strategy, 132 and 155.

 [50] Rollings, ‘Whitehall and the Control of Prices and Profits’, 517–40 and 531.

 [51] Pimlott, The Second World War Diary, 407.

 [52] Harris, William Beveridge, 263.

 [53] Rollings, ‘Whitehall and the Control of Prices and Profits’, 517–40, 520 and 532.

 [54] Beveridge, British Food Control, 337.

 [55] Murphy, The British War Economy, 273.

 [56] Memo by the Minister of Food, 9 June 1950, NA, CAB 134/133. See also, Rationalization of Wholesale Distribution, April 1941–May 1943, NA MAF 99/1319.

 [57] Murphy, The British War Economy, 259.

 [58] For the Attlee governments see: Manton, ‘Playing Both Sides against the Middle’, 306–33 and 318–32.

 [59] Manton, ‘Playing Both Sides against the Middle’, 306–33 and 329.

 [60] Beveridge, The Times, 12 January 1940.

 [61] Peden, ‘Arms, Government and Businessmen’, 138.

 [62] Chester, ‘The Central Machinery for Economic Policy’, 20.

 [63] Beveridge, Power and Influence, 242.

 [64] Beveridge, Power, 242.

 [65] Inskip to Beveridge, 15 December 1936, BLPES, Bev viii/11 (71).

 [66] Inskip to Beveridge, 15 December 1936, BLPES, Bev viii/11 (71)

 [67] ‘Food Supplies in War Time’, The Times, 30 November 1936, in, NA, CAB 104/147.

 [68] Wilt, Food for War, Agriculture and Rearmament, 78.

 [69] French to Sir James Rae, 2 December 1936, NA, MAF 72/726.

 [70] French to Hamilton, 18 November 1936, NA, MAF 53/132; ‘Food (Defence Plans) Department’, NA, MAF 72/726.

 [71] Memorandum from Beveridge to Hankey, ‘notes on financial terms’, n.d., BLPES, Bev viii/11 item 90, 5 and 6.

 [72] Hankey to Inskip.

 [73] Hankey to Beveridge, 7 September 1939, BLPES, Bev 2/B/39/1 (A-2).

 [74] Harris, Beveridge, 354.

 [75] Beveridge to Lennox-Boyd, 24 October 1939, BLPES, Bev ii/B/39/2.

 [76] Home agricultural production in relation to defence, 4 December 1936, NA, MAF 53/132.

 [77] Wilt, Food for War, Agriculture and Rearmament, 77.

 [78] Peacock to Dorman-Smith, 30 August 1939, NA, MAF 72/726; see also, F. Marshall, NFU, Durham County Branch Secretary to William Morrison, 8 November 1939, NA, MAF 72/383.

 [79] Central Tea Distribution (Defence) Committee to F(DP)D, 17 August 1939, NA, MAF 72/445.

 [80] Notes of an interview with Mr Ambrose Keevil, 24 January 1939, NA, MAF 72/401.

 [81] Minutes of the 58th meeting of the Advisory panel of industrialists, 24 July 1939: evidence of Sir Henry French, 2–3.

 [82] Beveridge, Organisation, Powers and Personnel, 12.

 [83] 58th meeting of the Advisory panel, 3.

 [84] Hancock and Gowing, British War Economy, 52.

 [85] Wilt, Food for War, Agriculture and Rearmament, 104.

 [86] F(DP)D, A review of the department's preparations in the light of the crisis in September 1938, NA, MAF 72/549.

 [87] F(DP)D, A review of the department's preparations in the light of the crisis in September 1938, NA, MAF 72/549

 [88] French to Beveridge, 20 April 1939, BLPES, Bev 2/B/38/2 (A-2).

 [89] Conference of divisional food officers, Thursday 27 April 1939, NA, MAF 72/524.

 [90] Minutes of the 58th meeting of the advisory panel of industrialists, 24 July 1939: evidence of Sir Henry French, 4.

 [91] Beveridge, The Times, 3 October 1939.

 [92] Beveridge, The Times, 6 February 1940.

 [93] CID, sub-committee on food supply in time of war: Food Storage, September 1936 FS 12, NA, CAB 16/157.

 [94] CID, sub-committee on food supply in time of war: Food Storage, September 1936 FS 12, NA, CAB 16/157

 [95] Note of a meeting held at the board of trade on the 23 September 1936, NA, MAF 72/655, 4.

 [96] Gowers, Memorandum on a plan for the creation of a war-reserve of wheat and flour, NA, MAF 72/655, 3.

 [97] Note of a meeting held at the board of trade on the 23 September 1936, NA, MAF 72/655, 6.

 [98] French to Sir James Rae.

 [99] E. M. H. Lloyd, Memorandum: Circumstances in which a Rationing Scheme Would Be Urgently Needed, 19th January 1937, Lloyd 5/1.

[100] Churchill, The Second World War, 176.

[101] Rock, British Appeasement in the 1930s, 60; Johnson, Defence of Committee, 237.

[102] Shay, British Rearmament in the Thirties, 267.

[103] Greenwood, ‘Caligula's Horse Revisited’, 17–38 and 19.

[104] Greenwood, ‘Caligula's Horse Revisited’, 17–38 and 25.

[105] J. M. Keynes to Inskip 23 August 1938, in Moggridge, The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes, 474.

[106] Hancock and Gowing, British War Economy, 128.

[107] Note of a meeting held at 6 Richmond Terrace on Thursday, 16 March 1939, NA, CAB 21/743, 2.

[108] Hansard, 2 June 1938 cols. 2280/81.

[109] C & E Morton to French, 14 December 1936, NA, MAF 72/653.

[110] Canned food trades standing joint committee, ‘Memorandum on the organisation of the canned food trade in an emergency’, n.d. but May/June 1939, NA, MAF 72/66, 1.

[111] Board of trade vote, 25 May 1937, NA, MAF 72/534, 2.

[112] Bailer, The Shadow of the Bomber, 2 and 3.

[113] Peden, Arms, Economics and British Strategy, 108.

[114] Quoted by, Neilson, ‘The Defence Requirements Sub-committee, British Strategic Foreign Policy’, 676.

[115] Peden, Arms, Economics and British Strategy, 58.

[116] E. M. H. Lloyd, What Sort of War Do We Expect: notes for a lecture, (nd) 2. BLPES, Lloyd 7/39.

[117] Hancock and Gowing, British War Economy, 52.

[118] Ministry of food, F.I.G. (war) circular no. 32, ‘Memorandum in regards to mutual assistance pacts for food retailers in time of war’, 26 October 1939, NA, MAF 72/720.

[119] Divisional food officer to Lachlan Maclean, 10 May 1940, NA, MAF 72/720.

[120] The National Federation of Grocers' and Provision Dealers Associations to Maclean, 21 June 1940, NA, MAF 72/720.

[121] Ministry of food, F.I.G. Circular no. 381, ‘Mutual Assistance Pacts’, 21 August 1940, NA, MAF 72/720.

[122] Third progress report of the F(DP)D, 7th July 1937, 3. Lloyd 5/2.

[123] Astor to Beveridge, 18 October 1939, BLPES, Bev 2/B/39/2.

[124] French to Morrison, 8 September 1939, NA, CAB 21/744.

[125] French to Morrison, 8 September 1939, NA, CAB 21/744

[126] Minute sheet, 6 December 1939, NA, MAF 72/152.

[127] Note of a meeting held at 6 Richmond, 4.

[128] Wilt, Food for War, Agriculture and Rearmament, 70.

[129] Hancock and Gowing, British War Economy, 43.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kevin Manton

Kevin Manton is lecturer in History and Politics at SOAS & Birkbeck, London.